Why do i farm?

I know this isn't about farmalls, but I really need help! I am 25 years old and I'm trying to figure out why I farm. I graduated in 2002 from a small Nebraska town. I'm the only person out of 28 students that stayed home to farm. Atleast 3/4 of my fellow classmates were from a farming background and had the opportunity to farm, but didn't. I do love farming, I love being the boss and I love being around my family. At the same time I don't like farming, I don't like being the boss and it can be hard to get along with my family. I talk to my classmates now and again and it sucks. I see how much fun they are having and how successful they are and I wonder why I'm doing what I am. I don't want to make this any longer then it already is so, I guess what I want to know is why do you farm or not farm and why?

Thanks
ProudCubOwner

Not to disuade you, or anything, but [b:72eb181173]only you can answer that question[/b:72eb181173]. I don't farm. I wasn't raised in a farming community. My Grandfather farmed, which is my connection to Farmall tractors. I am in the U.S. Navy, and have served for more than 17 years. Many of my friends from high school didn't serve. They have regular jobs, settled in one place, and make a good deal more money than I do. So... why do I serve? I serve because it's who I am. It completes me as a person, for now. So I've chosen to make it my way of life. Money isn't as important as doing something that centers me.

Maybe farming does the same for you.

If not, than maybe you should pursue something else for a time. I know of one guy I served with a while back who joined the Navy to get out of Iowa and see some of the world, and have some "worldly" experiences under his belt. He wanted money for education so he could go to a good Ag school, and learn how to better run his family's farm business and do something more with it. He didn't plan on making the Navy a career, but wanted to farm for his career after he served his term. For all I know, he did exactly as planned. I transfered and never knew. In fact, hadn't thought about him until now.

My point: There are always options in life. Do what you want, including work. Because when you love what you do, it doesn't feel like work, it just feels like life.

Hope that helps.

Mike

I was raised on a farm. I left at 18 and never looked back until I retired from the Navy.

Now I dub around raising a few sheep and chickens on 4 acres. It gives me an excuse to have a couple of tractors and some equipment and it's good stress management from my day job. I know I could never farm for a living, the risks and associated stress would literally kill me.

However...

You look at your friends and see the FUN side of what they're doing, and their apparent financial success. What you don't see is that EVERY JOB HAS A DOWNSIDE. If it was all beer and skittles, they'd call it fun, not work. There's stress in every line of work, there are jerks to work with/for, there are parts of every job that are just plain drudgery.

Being retired from the Navy has given me the financial freedom to try different lines of employment since I retired in 1990. I've been self-employed in several fields such as carpentry, property maintenance and computer support. I've worked for other folks as a network administrator, a mechanic, an electronic equipment installer, a gardener/caretaker and currently as a Maintenance Manager/Planner. Every single one of those jobs had some good points that got me interested in taking the job, and some bad points that motivated me to move on.

My point is, don't be so sure your friends are all ecstatically happy, and don't assume the grass is as green as it looks on the other side of the fence.

A quote by the editor of a farming magazine:

"I've come to the conclusion that people are divided into two groups.....
Those who dig in dirt and those who don't".

i don't know,maybe its something that is just part of your dna after generations of men in the family all farming,maybe its the satisfaction of seeing a crop grow each year, [ and hope each year that it does grow] maybe its the open spaces you can view on a clear early morning as you start in the fields,[ try explaining that to the city dwelling friends who are hiding in the house with the women by 6 pm, and who's view consists of his 90 year old neighbors bathroom window] maybe its the satisfaction of being your own man and doing a job not many others today your age got the guts to stand up on their hind legs and go do,but only you will ever know for sure

Farming is a way of life. It is a value system in a way.

My wife and I both grew up on and/or around farming. I can't imagine farming for a living but if I had the balls to do it (and insurance) I would.

I'm a teacher and my wife also works in the school. We have a small farm that keeps us busy (usually to busy) on the side. It works out quite well for us and our family. We love what we do. It provides a lot of our food, some additional cash flow, and some great tax relief.

Do you have family (wife and kids)?

They are the number one reason I mess around farming and don't do as many other things as I may want to do. My wife and I love working, planning, and making our little farm what it is because whatever it is it's ours and we did it ourselves; together. As for the kids; I can say after working with kids for a living for over 10 years that, without exception, kids who grow up helping on a farm have something other kids don't.

I hope that helps. Keep us posted.
Drk

I've spent my whole life trying to get back where I was at your age.

If ya think things are tough now, go work for someone else. That'll change your tune in a hurry.

Allan

Alan has a very good point. I grew up around farming, and left at about 18 to work in a factory. I still work 31 years later in that factory, but moved back to the old farm about 5 yrs ago. A few months ago the corporation that now owns the factor announced it would close that operaration to move operations to (you guessed it) Mexico. While I have since gone to college (on their dime) and now work in IT making a very good living, it saddens me to watch my job and many others moving across borders. For the immediate future I still have a job there, however the mfg is closing down, and I pretty much support the Mexico operation. Long term though I am looking elsewhere for employment. Sure makes one reflect on his past and wonder about the future. Good luck to you.

Ifarm because thats what I'm happiest doing. Tried working at IH, tried the Air Force but have been the happiest farming.

Life is short, so don't spend it working at something you don't like to do. After you have food in your belly, a roof over your head and a bed to sleep in and good health there isn't much else left. We only get to live once.

If you really like the farm, don't give it up. It looks like your friend's are having a lot of fun now, but that fun might not be as good as they make it to out to be. My son grew up on a farm back on the 80's and wanted to farm, but financially it was not possible. He has worked in ag related jobs since and as far as having a good living, things have been fine. Weekends off, golfing, motorcycling, and etc. But as he told me the other day, he has a real problem getting up to go to work every day. Wished he could be doing what he really wanted to do. Life is short so do what it takes to make "you" happy. Good Luck..

I think the biggest reason to farm is because you like doing it - otherwise its just torture and time to do something else. I'm farming about 25 acres more as a hobby than to make a living. I'm sort of reliving my childhood from the 60's, living a piece of history with my old Farmalls and related equipment and the best part is if my crops are wiped out tomorrow with weather the worst thing is I'm just mad, not bankrupt. Yes some people think I'm nuts - let them dial the cell phone on my 43 H.

Man I understand where you are coming from as I am sure many on here. I grew up on a beef farm in east Tn and later a dairy. My family has farmed for 5 generations. Being 46 years old, I like many of your friends left the farm to pursue the me and I lifestyle. In no way did I feel, at your age, that I wanted anything to do with farming. But as age seems to do I have come to appreciate the farm life and what growing up on a farm truly means. How you appreciate each day in a different way than most folks. And like some of your friends will more than likely do I found my way back to the farm. After divorcing I reflected on the important stuff and moved closer to my family and the farm. I began helping out on the farm and when my parents passed I moved back to the family home. I still have a "day job" but my heart is with my brother and the dairy. My two children help on the farm, one milks some, and have come to appreciate the life. I am not saying it is a rich life in the world's eyes but is in the grand picture. Don't look at what the other's have because as they say the grass in always greener. Look inside and ask yourself what you want to do and where do you see yourself most fulfilled. I'd give anything to farm fulltime but financially the family farm can't support me and my brother. He made it his life and has never looked back even though I know he gets discouraged and even angry. He still wouldn't trade it and that is what you need to decide. Do you want to trade it for something else knowing that you may not be able to come back once gone. It's a lot to think about - but do think long and hard then go for what will make you most satisfied.

Yeah - I was away from it for a long time and life happened. Well, as it turned out I inherited 12 acres so my wife and I used it as a down payment on 40 acres of part of the old family farm next to my cousin. He farms it, I help him, we have fun, sometimes make a little money and are the best of friends. Dirt in your blood can be a healthy thing.

I was raised on a farm and left when I was 18 because we still had the draft and Dad and I felt it best to get my service out of the way rather than get started farming and then have to leave. During 4 years in the Air force, I got married, started a family and never got back to farming. Almost did at one time, had my wife talked into it, but by that time land prices had skyrocketed and there was no way possible to do it. Worked 38 years for a hydraulics manufacturer, had good jobs there most of the time, but it was not the same. After 15 or 20 years, I don't think I could have stood the rigors of farming anyway.
My advice for what it's worth, do it now... if it doesn't work out in several years, it will be easier to step away from it than to get started again.

I am in your same age group so I understand where you are coming from. My friends get to go out on the weekends and do what they want. I on the other hand run a research barn for a large hog operation, help my father-in-law row-crop, and help my dad hobby farm. But when I talk to my friends about what they accomplish in the past week or month, everything gets puts back in perspective. I love ag and that is what my life is centered on. That is something that you need to reflect on. And just don't reflect on it for a few days but look at the bigger picture. Every job/lifestyle has its days and it is your willingness to work through these days for your reward that will decide wether or not you want to keep farming. Just remember, you don't know what you got 'till its gone.

I was just asking myself the same thing.

Today being Sunday, I cultivated the zukes, cukes, melons and tomatoes, replaced the battery in the H, worked up a little ground and planted this weeks arugula and radishes.

I have always wanted to farm, but we were raised in town. My Dad"s brother wound up with their family"s farm. It is all houses now. This has been my full time gig for 12 years. I like it.

I think the problem here is that I need to step away from the harvesting and packing, and do more of the field work at the time that it needs doing. I"m thinking that because it is 7 pm on Sunday and I"m calling it a week. Not really, I still have to enter orders and get ready for when our crew shows up tomorrow morning at 8 am.

There needs to be time to work on my car, paint the house, mess around with my bikes, take Mary out to dinner, something other than working on the farm.

Maybe that"s your problem too. If you really don"t like it, get out now. It will kill you. It might actually kill you, so the risks are not worth the rewards unless it is something that you like doing. On the other hand, if you don"t like milking twice a day, every day, or don"t like sitting in a tractor while the GPS drives you around, is there a way that you can change it so that you do like it ?

What would you rather be doing ?

Greg

I don't farm,and never have. I grew up as a "garage rat" at Pappy and Grand-dad's tractor shop. By the time I got old enough to get involved at the shop, all the tools and equipment were old, and Pap and Grand-dad refused to make the switch to "them stinkin' diesels," as Pap called 'em. Consequently, there wasn't enough business to support everyone.

So I went to work away from the shop, and helped out on the weekends. In the early 1980's I went to work for the WRGrace fertilizer plant...just as the farm economy went in the dumper. Even after the Farm Bureau fertilizer plant in Indy burned and we got the FB contract, our volume kept dropping. After 1983 I never went back, and there's a WAL*MART where the fertilizer plant and the tobacco warehouse next door used to stand.

A couple of the jobs I had over the years were mistakes...they were the ones I took while chasing the Almighty Dollar, rather than doing what I love. And now that I'm almost 55, I realize the time I spent there is time I'll never get back.

Others have said about the same thing, but have you done some Family History research? I was surprised when I did some on my families, how many listed "farmer" as occupation in old census records which one can look up. I have never really farmed, but I think being out in the country sort of does run in the blood.
Also, I've lived in a city & it isn't all fun all the time. Commuting to & from work isn't all that great, taxes aren't all that great, seeing your rent increase every year isn't so great...

How are you measuring your friends' success and amount of fun? Do you envy what they are doing versus what you are doing? If so, consider what you really appreciate about farming and your life now and weigh those things against what you envy in your friends' lives. Contemplate how you would feel if you suddenly lost those things that you really appreciate in your life now as a farmer.

The first thing you said regarding your feelings about your life as a farmer was: "I do love farming." By doing so, you either consciously or unconsciously valued that love for farming over the things you dislike about farming.


In life, as I have come to know it, sane people do things for two simple reasons:

1) Because they love doing something either for their own enjoyment or for someone else.

and,

2) Because they need something that enables them to do more of number 1.